Wow…I can’t believe I actually got offshore! We left Palacios Sunday, Nov 4th. There wasn’t much wind at all, but we figured with a boatload of greenies that might be a good thing. By the time we reached the Gulf it was near noon. The ocean was pretty mild with waves of 1 to 3 feet. Not bad at all. We had just the right wind to sail East to Galveston. We decided to go about 20 miles offshore so we could all get a look at real “blue water.” Now I’m a sailor; now I get what all the hub-bub is about; now I know why people love sailing; I have the bug. All my life I had dreamed of leaving shore

and heading out into the ocean, and then keep going. I’m so glad my kids are experiencing what it took me so long to. How wonderful!

It was probably around 4:00 or 5:00pm when Garrett saw a fin sticking up. He said, “Is that a—-yep, it’s a shark!” (duh da, duh da, duh da). I can now check that off the list of things I wanted to see (now I need to find a whale). The shark was about the size of a dolphin and he was just hanging out on top of the water…looking all shark-like mean. He must have been sleeping or something because when our boat got close to him he jerked away and swam off all in a huff.

We watched the sun fall off the edge of the earth, then come back up on the other side.

The night sky at sea is like nothing I’ve ever seen! We could see the Milky Way so clearly; and Orion’s belt; and the dog star. It was amazing. We lost count of all the shooting stars (meteors) we saw! We even saw a satellite floating around up there. How cool is that?

When you are out on the water in a small boat, you realize how much of the earth is ocean, and how little is land. There is so much life out there, probably more than on land, and yet until you’re out in the middle of it, you don’t really think of the impact it has on the rest of the world. I’m not sure I really know how to express it, and I’m sure that what God is showing me is what He brought me out here to see, but I realized how small my thinking had been. God is huge, and brilliant, and genius, and creative. Life is so busy that it’s hard to make yourself stop and contemplate the impact all of God’s creations have on each other. For instance, have you ever stared at a jelly fish or cabbage head? What was He thinking when he made that thing? It has this strange helmet-like head with a body that “inhales” and “exhales”; then these strange stringy tenacles–some straight like thread and some are ruffled like ribbon. How bizarre! And the water’s color. It goes from a gray green turquoise-y color to indigo blue almost instantly. How does He do that?

I was very proud of myself because I learned how to use the GPS and radar, which I had to know to stand my watches. There are lots of oil rigs out there, and ships. It’s really, really dark so you have to make sure you’re not going to crash into them. Very exciting. When we came into Galveston, we anchored in the bay where there is a lot of ship traffic. It was a rough night. Then we moved over here to Offats the next day. John let me steer the whole way. I had to maneuver through two bridges with tug and barge traffic coming and going and making currents. I did it, and kept us in the channel! Wahoo!

Once we got into Galveston we were able to tune in a few TV stations (something we hadn’t had since we moved on board). We couldn’t find much fit to watch. The clearest station we got was airing “Dancing with the Stars”. Watching that after being offshore puts it all into perspective!

We are anchored in Offats Bayou in Galveston right now. It’s a great place to be. We can motor the dinghy to lots of things within walking distance. We are planning a “field trip” to Moody Gardens this weekend. All the shopping we need is just footsteps away. The Colonel (a big mock stern wheeler) is passing us by. It has 3 decks and lots of lights.

You know, apparently, you have a good chance of seeing a whale right here in Oklahoma. Yeah…you didn’t have to sail out to the big blue wet thing to see whales. I just found out there’s a law against whaling here in good ole land-logged Oklahoma….who knew?? 🙂